Pradeep Damodaran

Monday, 2 January 2017

The past several weeks have been
really harsh on all of us here in TN with demonetisation, demise of former CM
Jayalalithaa, and Cyclone Vardah thrashing us in consecutive waves even as we
cope with the new realities and struggle to move on. But all these troubles
faced by 78-odd million citizens of TN amount to very little when compared with
that faced by the hundreds of Tamil families stuck in the landlocked state of
Manipur.

Moreh

Situated in the scenic Kabaw valley
bordering Myanmar right on Asian Highway 1 and dubbed as the gateway to the SE,
is the tiny trading town of Moreh. Bright sunshine, lush green vegetation interspersed
with tall teakwood trees, small-framed men and slender women with well-defined
noses and cheeks smeared with thanakha, a tree-bark paste -- the
local equivalent of sunscreen lotion -- welcome visitors to the border town.

Although Moreh spans across merely
three-square kilometres, this piece of land is home to virtually all the major
communities found in the country, including Tamils, Punjabis, Bengalis and
Nepalis, not to mention the Meiteis, Kukis and several other hill tribes who
have settled here in phases over the past several decades.

Until a few years ago, more than 3000
Tamil families lived in Moreh and the community was among the most influential
and prominent. The Moreh Tamil Sangam, the cultural and social organization here
that has been active since the mid-1960s when the town was little more than a
handful of shops and teakwood cabins, is the oldest association here and
continues to run free schools besides engaging in other charity work.

With decades of insurgency and
economic slowdown continuing to strangle the north-east, the Tamil population
in Moreh has dwindled to a mere 400 families, most of whom have migrated from
Myanmar in the 1960’s after General Ne Win came to power and order expulsion of
all non-indigenous people from their country. These 400 odd Tamil
families that remain in Moreh have been put to untold misery of late due to an
economic blockade that has been going on now for over 50 days now with no end
in sight.

According to Khaja Mohideen, media
coordinator of the Moreh Tamil Sangam, the economic blockade has completely
choked the lives of all residents of Moreh including the Tamil families. “The
prices have risen so much that it is impossible to purchase even essential
commodities. A kilogram of salt costs Rs. 50/- while a litre of petrol now
costs around Rs. 350/-. We have been paying more than Rs. 3000/- for an LPG
cylinder. While the huge surge in prices is a concern, what is more worrying is
that there is a huge shortage of goods even if one is willing to pay the price,”
Khaja says.

A lifelong resident of Moreh, Khaja
lives with his wife and children close to the international border that India
shares with Myanmar and runs a retail shop selling utensils and other household
items.

Not just Khaja but a vast majority of
the Tamils settled in Moreh are businessmen. The economic blockade has been
especially harsh on the Tamil population who are unable to export or import
goods as the only two major highways leading to Imphal and then Moreh have been
blocked by the United Naga Council, who have been protesting against the state
government’s proposal to create seven new districts in the state. Over the past few weeks alone, at least 50
private vehicles transporting goods from outside the state to Imphal have been
torched bringing goods movement to a complete halt.

Khaja says that with the two arterial
roadways blocked, they are unable to bring their goods from Dimapur in
Nagaland, which is the closest railway station, by road. “Goods worth several
lakh rupees are stuck in Dimapur while we are struggling for want of
essentials,” he says.

The most recent economic blockade and
resulting violence, however, is not the first occasion when the state of
Manipur has been on the boil. The people of Manipur, especially the Tamil
community in Moreh, are used to all this. “When people talk about the suffering of
Tamils, only our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka are remembered whereas we
have been going through so much trouble since the 1960’s and have weathered all
the storms that came our way,” Khaja says.

Among
the earliest settlers in Moreh, the first Tamil families that moved here
arrived from different parts of Myanmar during the 60’s. Their ancestors had
been living in the country formerly known as Burma for generations and had
migrated to the SE Asian country mostly during the early 1800s when Myanmar
also came under the combined British administration. The first group of
migrants were primarily government servants who were posted in the country and
worked for the British. They were soon followed by the businessmen from central
and southern TN who set up business establishments and prospered until the
1960s when they were expelled from the country. Upon returning to India, most
of these Burmese Tamils found it hard to cope with the changed business
environment in TN and decided to settle down close to the Myanmar border in
Moreh. With help from friends and relatives who still lived in Myanmar, they
set up shops in the border town and made a life for themselves. Over the years,
cross-border trade – both legal and clandestine – thrived in Moreh and its Tamil
settlers began to prosper.

Sree Angala Parameswari temple

But, life has never been
easy in their adopted land. As the Tamil and other businessmen from different
parts of India began to prosper and control much of the trade along the
Indo-Myanmar border, they faced stiff resistance from the indigenous tribes
including the Nagas, Kukis and dozens of other communities who had always been
warring with each other and were less prosperous. Violent clashes have broken out between the
Tamils and the Nagas, Tamils and Kukis in which several people were injured,
homes were razed to the ground and businesses were destroyed. When the situation
continued to remain unsafe, a majority of the settlers shifted out of Moreh and
settled down in their hometowns in TN.

Presently, only 400
families remain in Moreh and continue to run their businesses despite the
unstable environment. The economically strong Tamil community has also built a
huge TN-style shrine called the Sri Angala Parameswari Temple, the second
largest south Indian temple in the entire North East region. The temple, which spreads across
approximately five acres of land sits right on the international border and was
being renovated when this writer last visited Moreh in 2015.

Secretary of the Tamil
Sangam, Subramani who is also a lifelong resident of the border town then said
that the Sangam was insistent on building a solid, massive structure as after a
few decades, the temple might be the only remaining monument to prove that a
vibrant Tamil community once lived and thrived in Moreh. With the latest
imbroglio posing yet another challenge to the Tamil populace in Moreh,
Subramani’s prediction might turn out to be true sooner than he had
anticiipated.

But, despite the odds
Khaja remains defiant and hopeful. “We are used to all this and will survive.
We have seen and overcome so much that this is nothing in comparison,” he said.

Until the economic
blockade is revoked, Khaja and his friends in Moreh depend on the open, porous
border with Myanmar for their survival. “We can move freely between the two
countries and will get our essentials from our neighbouring country till this
is all over,” he says.

Saturday, 11 June 2016

Any book on a notorious serial killer is bound to be
intriguing. When the killer is extremely intelligent and is tracked down by a
tireless and brainier detective, the premise makes for a racy plot with plenty
of twists and turns. In that sense, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay’s Patang does justice to the genre.

Thursday, 2 April 2015

My first book ‘Mullaperiyar
Water War’ which has been in the works for so long is finally out. I had
originally planned an official launch by late January or February but had to
give it up as I could not get a chief guest to preside over the function. The
politicians, bureaucrats and even activists who know about the dam enough to
speak about it refused to participate as they did not want to get themselves
involved with this complicated issue. So, I decided to do away with a formal
launch.

The book is available in
most book shops and also on on Flipkart, Amazon and all other websites.

When the riots broke out in Cumbum and Kumily
over the safety of the Mullaperiyar Dam in 2012, I had been working as the City
Editor of our Coimbatore edition and had been assigned
to cover the violence. During the few weeks of reporting that I had done in
Cumbum and Kumily in Kerala, I had witnessed extreme hostility from both Tamils
and Keralites as I am a Malayali born and brought up in Chennai. Hence, neither
group trusted me.

I had shared some of my experiences with
a literary agent with whom I had been working on a different book upon my
return from the riot coverage and the idea for this book was born then.

The book ‘Mullaperiyar
Water War’ explores the 115-year-old history of one of the oldest and strongest
dams in the country, the various conflicts and legal battles that have taken
place between TN and Kerala over the safety of the dam through the past
century, besides exploring the possible solutions to the conflict.

The bane of being a
newspaper intern is to suffer through the mundane ritual of covering
events and filing reports that seldom make it to the pages of a
newspaper. It was one such routine event – areview
meeting organized by a handful of NGOs working for rehabilitation of
tsunami victims in January 2007.

As is
customary in such occasions, no journalist worth his or her salt decided
to cover the event leaving this scribe, just three days old in the profession
then, as the only ‘celebrity’ media person at the venue.

Tsunami victims from the
Kasimedu area who had been rehabilitated at temporary shelters in
Tsunami Nagar, Ernavur walked up to the podium and narrated the ordeal
that their lives had become since the killer waves tided their lives.

Monday, 23 March 2015

For the nth time,
Traffic Ramaswamy went to jail for a public cause and has stormed out in his imitable style.

Barely 12 hours after
the Madras High Court granted bail to Traffic Ramaswamy, the octogenarian activist is back in his
dingy little one-room office behind the kitchen of the Ramakrishna Lunch Home
in Parrys doing wha

Traffic Ramaswamy

t he loves -- preparing PIL petitions to be filed at the HC
over the week.

“I am preparing a
petition against the city police for unlawfully arresting me without even
informing my personal security guard. They think I will be intimidated but such
acts only make me stronger. I am going to ensure that the police officers who
arrested me face the music,” says Ramaswamy sitting behind a large computer screen and
piles of files dumped on his work table. His secretary Stella Yogambal sits
behind another computer screen at the other end of the room sorting letters and
documents sent by well wishers and fans.

Going to jail for a
public cause is nothing new for this frail, bespectacled man. “This is my ninth
jail visit. I see this as a vacation. Since I never take any rest, jail visits
ensure that I take a break from work,” he says.

The last time Traffic Ramaswamy went to jail was in 2008 during the DMK regime
when he threatened to file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking dissolution
of the state government citing a law and order failure. He had to go on an
indefinite hunger strike forcing CM Karunanidhi to order his release. Ramaswamy
still recalls that incident with pride.

Thursday, 1 January 2015

As yet another year comes to an end, let's take a look at who have made it to the 'Who's who' list for the year 2014.

If there is one person who qualifies unanimously for the man with 'balls of steel' award in TN for 2014, it has to be none other than the slender, mischievous-looking judge from neighbouring Karnataka, Justice Michael D’Cunha.

In a year which saw the most macho police officers, matinee super stars and even six-pack flashing youth icons take up the practice of worshipping the ‘mother’ as means to a prosperous life, the Karnataka judge, a native of Gurpur Kaikamba, about 18 kilometers from Mangalore, has shown people in TN that it is still possible to stand up for what one believes in and even get away with it, thus increasing his popularity manifold in the state.

The judgement that he delivered on September 27 convicting Jaya and three of her associates for a four-year prison term besides a huge fine running into several crores, is rumoured to have provided an androgen boost even to the nanogenarian DMK patriarch M Karunandhi who could finally see some light at the end of his dark, family-feud filled tunnel.

Chief Minister O Panneerselvam who is again back in the top seat, has however not yet thought it appropriate to physically rest his rear end in the coveted seat. He continues to keep his head down and spirits high. Despite trying his best to not do anything besides maintaining a mournful appearance, he has been celebrated by sections of national media as a go-getter CM, deft at handling state affairs staking his claim as a strong contender for the award.

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Just a day after the shocking
mass suicide attempt by the seven member family in Puducherry on December 17, the
eldest daughter of the Gadadar Prasad from Bihar still remains dazed at
the bleak future staring at her.

Lying in the
hospital bed in medical ward number 108 at the Pondicherry government
hospital with a woman police constable guarding her, Jayashree does not
seem to mourn the death of three of her familymembers
nor their decision to commit mass suicide.

"If
we are chased out of our homes, where else can we go. I am 55 and have
spent the last 35 years of my life here," she says."We are not
in touch with any of our relatives and have nowhere to go."